Operations & Systems · BF016

Operational Bottleneck Analysis

Find the process constraint creating delays, rework, capacity pressure, or owner involvement.

5-minute worksheet

Answer these before using the prompt. If you do not know something, write “unknown” rather than guessing.

What specific situation, process, decision, or offer are we working on? What facts, numbers, examples, or documents do you already have? What is currently not working or creating pressure? What constraints must the solution respect? What outcome would make this useful?

Copy-ready AI prompt

Act as a practical small-business advisor helping me complete the "Operational Bottleneck Analysis" tool.

PURPOSE
Find the process constraint creating delays, rework, capacity pressure, or owner involvement.

RULES
- Use only facts I provide or clearly label an item as an assumption, hypothesis, target, or unknown.
- Do not invent customer evidence, market data, financial numbers, employee facts, deadlines, owners, results, or implementation status.
- Keep company-wide metrics separate from product-, service-, customer-, channel-, employee-, or project-level metrics unless I explicitly connect them.
- If a calculation cannot be completed from supplied data, show the formula and list the missing inputs instead of guessing.
- Prefer a short, usable plan over generic advice.
- Separate: Known Facts / Assumptions / Unknowns / Recommendations.
- End with the 3 most useful next actions.

INPUTS
1. Business/context: [INSERT]
2. Specific situation or decision: [INSERT]
3. Current evidence/numbers: [INSERT]
4. Constraints: [INSERT]
5. Desired outcome: [INSERT]

OUTPUT
1. Executive summary
2. Current situation
3. Analysis
4. Key findings
5. Recommendations
6. Risks / unknowns
7. Implementation steps
8. Next actions
9. Any worksheet, checklist, script, table, or template that would make this immediately usable.

Starter commands

Completion check

The recommendation is tied to the specific situation.
Facts and assumptions are visibly separated.
No unsupported numbers, customer claims, employee claims, deadlines, or implementation status were invented.
Missing information is named rather than guessed.
The output ends with concrete next actions.